20 August 2013

Lucas, Balcombe and what is at stake


I've been retweeting some of the messages from people who have joined the Green Party in the last 24 hours. Caroline Lucas and her arrest has been the inspiration. A politician with conviction who will lead by example. There will be many more who will have joined due to her stand.

We have opposed fracking. The first protest I was involved in was outside County Hall in Preston, just over two years ago, making clear our opposition to a 12 month extension of the original planning application for hydraulic fracturing for shale gas at Weeton, near Blackpool. Not all of us have faced arrest for doing so. Caroline remains our leading spokesperson and the inspiration for our politics.

Why does the fracking issue raise such concern? Pollution of ground water is a major issue for me but the basis for our opposition comes from an inescapable truth. Fracking will release more fossil fuels into the atmosphere. We are already in serious trouble due to Climate Change, which is triggering increasingly extreme weather.

Some sceptics are playing the "recovery" card in relation to Arctic Sea Ice. It is true that as we measure Extent (Arctic areas with 15% concentration or more of sea ice) and Area (30% concentration or more), then those measures are higher than last year. But it is also instructive to look at the North Pole as it appeared last week (look for the small green circle, approx 2 km diameter) and to remember that climate is about trends:



Reference: NASA supports an open data policy and we encourage publication of imagery from Worldview; when doing so, please cite it as "NASA Worldview". The Nasa Worldview site from which the image is copied is here: http://earthdata.nasa.gov/labs/worldview

If you haven't already seen it, you should also view a thirty year trend of Arctic Ice Volume. We simply can't afford to release even more greenhouse gases, including the methane released during fracking. Further fossil fuel use in a developed country is simply insane. We have the alternatives (and I'm not talking about the one that has released a further 300 tonnes of highly radioactive water into the environment today).

Energy efficiency and renewable energy. That is what we stand for. That is what we will campaign for.

Big profits for privatised energy companies and fossil fuels. That is what the others have settled for.

Join us. Do it today. We are the future, not them.

2 comments:

Steve said...

You don't really have a clue what fracking is, do you? I mean, really. Sure you've read some of the horror stories but your actual understanding of the science and the geology of it all, are pretty much non-existent

You would oppose it whatever.

Pointless post

Peter Cranie said...

I don't usually let anonymous postings through (see the house rules). Steve's google profile says nothing about him except that he has been on since April 2011. However...

He doesn't engage with the central argument on fracking for us, which is that we simply can't afford to burn more fossil fuels. We can supply energy to our national grid through renewable sources http://www.ippr.org/publication/55/9564/beyond-the-bluster-why-wind-power-is-an-effective-technology

You'll also notice that no links are offered or even counterarguments. Classic trolling. Don't FTT but do engage with real people and online in genuine debate. Many people from across the political spectrum oppose fracking and we have a real chance to make a difference by working across the political divide.